Hey, i’ve been at Hess for around 4 months now and I love it however as summer is coming up my school wants me to attend a 6 hour training session for Summer Camp next week of which I will be paid around 290 per hour (1700 for the whole day) instead of my usual 690 per hour.
They told me if I don’t do it then for the 6 weeks of summer camp I won’t be able to teach for the 6 weeks yet in my contract it says I am guaranteed 20 hours of teaching per week. But they refuse to pay me my standard salary as it’s ‘Not teaching, it’s training.’
I’m really worried that if I say no and continue arguing then the school will fire me and due to the pandemic this would be awful for many reasons. The training session won’t be at the school I work at but a different one.
I’m on a salary and don’t get paid extra for training.
Technically you aren’t really salaried. You are paid an hourly rate, only with guaranteed hours. If you were on a genuine monthly salary you’d be in a similar boat to me.
In you first post you say you love working at Hess right now. If that were not the case I would say do the training, do the summer position, and then find a new job for the fall.
However, in that you love working there, I would just suck it up. The training is just one day, correct? It isn’t totally fair, granted, but most Taiwanese view employment as salary based (not hourly) even if you are paid by the hour.
Ultimately, one day of half paid training, in a job you love versus finding a new job … Is it worth the trouble? As most posters here are saying, a resounding “no”, not worth the trouble, just stick it out and do the training.
Hess training workshops are a whole lot of fun. And it’s an opportunity for you to bond with your delightful co-teachers. You can carve out deep and meaningful relationships with like-minded souls. Even find that special one who’s a keeper. You’ll learn so much about teaching that you’ll be a veritable professor. And you get incredible food. Caviar and sashimi, pulled pork with mashed potatoes and gravy, Black Forest cake and French cheese platters.
You should be paying THEM!
Plenty of good advice here. Check your contract and look for the training bit. You probably have some fences to mend: “…and continue arguing” - unless you genuinely enjoy where arguments take you. Discussions are fine, but arguments … Really?
I’m not sure how schools are run in Taiwan, but if I had this type of worker in a normal business environment or this type of teacher in the US at a private school, I would immediately look to sever ties as quickly as legally possible. It’s just not the type of person I want at my company or at my school.
In a normal business environment you are expected to undergo continuous training necessary to effectuate your responsibilities. When employees start trying to nickel and dime an employer, they should generally be separated as soon as legally possible. You don’t want malcontents and those who want to do as little as possible to get a check working for you.
Do the training. It’s not a big deal. One day for chrissakes. On the upside you get to skip that one class with the snot-nosed punk you really hate (c’mon, every buxiban has one).
Employees generally don’t nickel and dime when they are paid for their time. You obviously don’t believe in doing that so please let us know what business you run so we can go out of our way to avoid it. Business owners who cheat their employees always loose out in the end in one way or another. Hess is a perfect example. Low wages and a high turnover.